Solid ink or phase change ink printers conventionally receive ink in a solid form, either as pellets or as ink sticks. The solid ink pellets or ink sticks are typically inserted through an insertion opening of an ink loader for the printer, and the ink sticks are pushed or slid along the feed channel by a feed mechanism and/or gravity toward a melt plate in the heater assembly. The melt plate melts the solid ink impinging on the plate into a liquid that is delivered to an ink reservoir which maintains the ink in melted form for delivery to a print head for jetting onto a recording medium.
One difficulty faced during operation of solid ink printers is the heat in the thermal mass of the melt plate following the termination of power to the melt plate. This heat may be sufficient to melt an appreciable amount of additional ink. If the reservoir supplied by the melt plate was full or nearly full when the power was terminated, the additional melted ink may cause the reservoir to overfill. Another issue arising from the heat in the melt plate being dissipated after power termination is the possibility of ink stick deformation. The portion of the ink stick against the melt plate may not receive enough heat to develop molten flow, but may merely deform, such as by spreading near the melt front. In some cases, this deformation may subsequently result in melt flow at the sides or the ink stick being directed through the feed channel in an off-axis direction that may impact the efficiency of ink stick melting once power is re-coupled to the melt plate. Therefore, interaction of an ink stick and a melt plate as the melt plate cools may impact operation of a solid ink stick printer.